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London – It is well known that a can of Coca Cola contains a lot of sugar, nine teaspoons in one can to be precise, but many other products on the shelves of our supermarkets also have very high levels of sugar.

A campaign by the group Action on Sugar plans to promote the amount of sugar that we consume on a daily basis in an effort to tackle obesity and diabetes. The UK based group will provide information to the public on how to avoid the hidden sugar that we all consume everyday in products as well as putting pressure on manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar they use.Action on Sugar chairman Graham MacGregor commented that “We must now tackle the obesity epidemic both in the UK and worldwide.”

Action on Sugar believes that the majority of sugar added to food and drink products is completely unnecessary and that have set a target of reducing the amount of sugar in products by 20 percent to 30 percent over a five-year period is a reasonable goal. “This is a simple plan which gives a level playing field to the food industry, and must be adopted by the Department of Health to reduce the completely unnecessary and very large amounts of sugar the food and soft drink industry is currently adding to our foods,” added MacGregor. As an example of how much sugar we consume everyday a few products were highlighted by the campaign group. A Starbucks caramel frappuccino with whipped cream with skimmed milk (tall): 273kcal; has an amazing 11 teaspoons of sugar. And the popular breakfast cereal Kellogg’s Frosties with semi-skimmed milk (30g) has four teaspoons of sugar. There are also some rather surprising results such as Heinz Classic Tomato Soup (300g) which has four teaspoons of sugar and Glaceau Vitamin Water, Defence (500ml) which has four teaspoons of sugar.

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and science director of Action on Sugar, commented for the BBC that “Added sugar has no nutritional value whatsoever and causes no feeling of satiety.” Almost two thirds of the population of the UK are classified as being obese or overweight and the hidden sugars in many of the products that we consume on a regular basis is seen as a reason for this problem.